Despite Connolly pleading guilty for her vile social media post, Badenoch openly expressed support for her upon her release.
The Conservative Party has always prided itself as being the party of ‘law and order’, yet over recent years and especially now under current leader Kemi Badenoch, it has abandoned all pretence of believing in the rule of law.
Indeed, in a race to the bottom and in a bid to appeal to Reform voters and its own extreme right wing base, it will say and do anything, even if that means questioning the judiciary, and it’s more than happy to trash its own image as being the party of law and order in the process.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the manner in which Badenoch has reacted to the release of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial violence. Connolly pleaded guilty to sharing a tweet on the day of the Southport stabbings, calling for “mass deportations” and urging people to “set fire” to asylum hotels.
On 29 July 2024, Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls and injured ten others at a Taylor Swift–themed yoga and dance workshop.
Far-right figures then spread misinformation online claiming Rudakubana was an asylum seeker who had recently travelled to the UK on a small boat. Riots across the country broke out the day after.
Despite Connolly pleading guilty for her vile social media post, Badenoch openly expressed support for her upon her release.
Yesterday on X, Badenoch wrote: “Lucy Connolly finally returns home to her family today. At last. Her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting.”
To Badenoch, it appears not to matter that Connolly pleaded guilty or that her sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal. So much for being the party of law and order.
That the leader of the opposition feels comfortable enough to openly express support for someone who pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred, after saying she had no problem with the mass murder of migrants, speaks volumes about how much the Conservative Party has fallen.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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